Plugging the last leaks

STEM WISE:
A panel of William & Mary's female researcher offers advice and encouragement to young women scientists at a workshop conducted by the Women in Science Education (WISE) initiative.

Established women scientists reach out to their STEM sisters

by Erin Zagursky
| June 26, 2012

A pipeline with a leak isn’t very efficient—much of whatever is supposed to
be transported will be lost along the way. That’s exactly what’s happening to
women as they pursue careers in science. A phenomenon aptly titled “the leaky
pipeline” describes how the number of women working toward science careers
decreases at each stage of the educational process.

That attrition is something that five women scientists are addressing
through the Women in Science Education initiative (WISE) at William & Mary.
WISE is a STEM-outreach program that concentrates on helping young women to
navigate through the final stretches of the pipeline that leads from
kindergarten to a career as a practicing scientist.

“There’s a discrepancy between males versus females who get their bachelor’s
degrees in science-related fields and then who go on to get their Ph.Ds. There
is an even bigger gender difference in who gets hired as faculty and then
receives tenure,” said Assistant Professor Cheryl Dickter. “For women,
maintaining a career in STEM drops off over time and so the idea is to
investigate why and figure out how we can help at each stage.”

Started in 2011

The initiative, which kicked off in 2011, seeks to conduct attitudinal
assessments about women in STEM careers, provide female faculty members with
research opportunities and sponsor career development opportunities. The
workshops and activities are aimed at helping other female faculty members at
William & Mary, Thomas Nelson Community College and Richard Bland College
as they face challenges unique to women in STEM professions.

Along with Dickter, the five WISE women include Associate Professor Jennifer
Stevens, Assistant Professor Catherine Forestell, Professor Pamela Hunt and
Visiting Assistant Professor M. Christine Porter. Stevens is the principal
investigator of the NSF grant. All are researchers in William & Mary’s
neuroscience and psychology programs.

To provide women with career development opportunities, WISE is sponsoring a
variety of activities, including workshops on topics such as writing,
leadership and challenges that women in STEM disciplines face. Participants
will also have the chance to attend an annual leadership forum, an annual
retreat and four symposia each year. The funding for WISE, a three-year
initiative, was provided by the National Science Foundation.

“This grant is to career-develop and empower female faculty in the STEM
disciplines,” Stevens said.

Resources for research &
transition grants

In addition to career development, WISE is also providing resources for
research and transition grants, said Forestell.

“We are quite aware—as women—that women are typically caretakers,” said
Forestell, noting that women are often responsible for the care of children and
aging parents. “That might interfere with their ability to be productive
researchers, so this grant is meant to provide a transition for them as they
return from some of those family responsibilities.”

Women community college faculty, who spend most of their time teaching, are
being provided with rare access to research opportunities as a result of the
initiative. During the spring 2012 semester, several community college faculty
members paired up with William & Mary faculty members to apply for grants
to support collaborative research.

“Money is tight with big, national grants, so if we can provide women with
access to these resources, it encourages and empowers them,” said Forestell.

In addition to career development and research opportunities, WISE is also
allowing researchers to conduct several assessments related to women in STEM
disciplines, said Dickter.

One such assessment is looking at how women in STEM disciplines perceive
themselves.

“Research suggests that even women who are at really good schools and are
tenured or who are tenure-track faculty still may have negative implicit
perceptions of themselves as women in science,” said Dickter.

Funded by National Science Foundation

In order to examine those perceptions, the researchers are conducting
several comparisons. They are looking, for example, at women participating in
WISE versus women who are not, women who are in STEM disciplines versus those
who are in non-STEM fields and women faculty versus men.

“We are looking long term to see if we can improve those implicit attitudes
about women in science over the course of the three years,” said Dickter.

Stevens said that it is important that the NSF, as a national funding
agency, funded this grant to support and fund research for women in STEM
disciplines.

“They recognize the discrepancy between the genders and they’re promoting
women in the STEM disciplines by funding these initiatives,” she said.

She added that it’s exciting that William & Mary is partnering with two
community colleges for this grant and expects the grant to benefit students.

“We are a relatively small school and it is tough for us to get funding,”
she said. “In comparison to large institutions, we created a community for
fostering development, collaboration and mentorship by partnering with our
community colleges and developing a critical mass. This will have long-term
effects for our own faculty and should have down-stream effects for
role-modeling with the students.”